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disregard for American values, all reflecting the upheaval and polarisation of Americansociety in the mid-1960s. The Apaches (Viet Cong) prove difficult to find. 'How can wecatch the wind or destroy an enemy we never see?' asks the young bugler, Ryan, in aprophetic comment on America's military involvement in Vietnam. The Mexican villagers(South Vietnamese) are initially liberated but then punished by the French (Soviet Union)when the Americans leave. There are no winners in this war. Most of the expeditionaryforce is killed.65 Dundee is a figure like Johnson, as determined as Johnson was in his fightagainst communism. To Johnson, Vietnam was just like the Alamo, retreat was nooption.66Retreat was just what happened in The Undefeated ( 1969), foreshadowing Nixon's plan tonegotiate America's military withdrawal from Vietnam. A group of Confederates and theirfamilies leave the South after the Civil War to go to Mexico to fight for the imposedEmperor Maximilian (General Thieu)67 against the popular backed resistance of theJuaristas (the Viet Cong). At the same time a former Union officer and the men he led planto make some money by selling horses to the federal army. When the price offered isconsidered too low they agree to sell instead to Maximilian but have to drive the horsesinto Mexico to get paid. This is a remarkable comment on patriotism and Americandemocratic values when profit is considered more important than supporting one's ownarmy and helping an imposed dictator to enslave another nation just after freeing fourmillion slaves in your own. The Confederates are captured by the Juaristas, but they areoffered their freedom in exchange for the horses. The Union men agree - they areAmericans after all - and Union and Confederate return home together to restart their lives.Reconciliation is further cemented with the Union colonel due to marry the Confederatecolonel's sister-in-law.This vision of fighting the enemy in the open and coming to a mutual understanding at theend was very different to the reality of fighting the Viet Cong, who fought against superiorfirepower with great cunning. America did not understand their motivation, and saw themonly as communists, as the alien 'other,' who had to be destroyed no matter what the cost.Yet they were an illusive enemy who made daring incursions like the Tet offensive of1968. The train robbery at the start of Rio Lobo (1970) echoes the Viet Cong's ability tostrike at the heart of American power with great ingenuity and then melt away. In TheBeguiled (1970) America's pejorative view when fighting non-whites is exposed.132
McBurney, even though he is wounded and reduced to one leg seeks to use his sexuality(firepower) to dominate the women (Viet Cong). He uses Nixon's divide and rule tactic byapproaching each of the women separately, judging that their pride and personal feelingswill prevent them from comparing notes and uniting against him. The 'weaker' party,however, wins through subtlety and imagination and McBurney is killed by his ownweakness. McBurney had underestimated them just as Johnson, Nixon and the Americanmilitary underestimated the North Vietnamese.As the Vietnam War escalated so the anti-war opposition grew. Many Americans,especially African Americans, wondered why the American government appeared moreconcerned with freedom in Vietnam than freedom at home. They questioned the wholebasis of a war that few understood and many considered immoral. When the Texans inJourney to Shiloh set out to travel to Richmond they believed in what they were going todo: they were going to fight for the South in the war. They were on an epic journey ofinnocence to experience travelling through 'regions of increasing moral complexity.' Onthe way they meet their first African American who turns out to be just like them andcommitted to the South. They experience duplicity from those in authority in the person of'Colonel' Cooney and again when they are tricked into enlisting into the Confederate armybefore they reach Richmond. Before the battle of Shiloh they realise that they have not gotanything 'against these Yankees' (Viet Cong) nor have they seen any of them. Theywonder why they are fighting.SOBuck: It's war, we're Southerners we've got to fight, it's a matter of freedom.Miller: Whose freedom? Like the slave we took in.Buck: He run away to be free. Is that why we're here - to be free.Miller: Lots of things don't make sense. Now we're getting ready to go to a battle wedon't know anything about - not even why.Johnson was justifying the war by fighting for the freedom of the Vietnamese yet many ofthe soldiers felt that freedom began at home. As the young Texans died so did theAmerican troops in Vietnam. Buck is the only one left, and even he has lost an arm,ironically because of a southern bullet. He finally returns to Texas muttering 'I knownothing about this damn war.'133
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Greenwich Academic Literature Archi
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REEL WARS: COLD WAR, CIVIL RIGHTSAN
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ABSTRACTThis study is an examinatio
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ABBREVIATIONSAMPASAHRBirthCommissio
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Historians using film as a resource
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dominated America's foreign policy
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Mary L. Dudziak explores this relat
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pure and simple' and were therefore
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historical texts. Hayden White comp
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Historians, history films and film
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How have sympathetic film historian
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Therefore historians can, with over
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identity and these were taken as th
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21 George F. Custen, 'Hollywood and
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63 Rosenstone, The Historical Film,
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of Honor dedicated to, and listing,
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War.....[it] defined us as to what
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The Civil War and popular cultureJu
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memory,53 the place where Union and
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Despite being a new medium Hollywoo
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From the late 1940s Hollywood was u
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1 William Faulkner, Requiem for a N
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36 Blight, Race and Reunion, 77, 81
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mainly composed of members of the w
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there was cowardice, it was either
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This was another Lost Cause myth -
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stuff with plenty of clothes, rich
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women into or within slavery. 47 Th
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departure when, in the discussion o
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1 William Dean Howells, Los Angeles
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37 Melvyn Stokes, The Civil War in
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All races and religions, that's Ame
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Hollywood almost abandoned Civil Wa
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charged with disloyalty and silence
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ecover from the HUAC investigations
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a living. The daughters grow up to
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Gettysburg. 'You know,' says Henry,
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combining two great myths, which co
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(1948), Tom Dunson's style of autoc
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Patriotism became a white attribute
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In the absence of African Americans
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(Horizons West) and businessmen (An
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year later, and there was no lead f
Page 89 and 90: 20 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War, Civil
Page 91 and 92: 56 Richard White, 'Western History'
Page 93 and 94: 7 have seen the promised land.' 'Th
Page 95 and 96: those between whites and African Am
Page 97 and 98: change, to forget what made him, he
Page 99 and 100: eported that the film had 'already
Page 101 and 102: campaigning for Lincoln. John's rea
Page 103 and 104: lack/white relationships, in Civil
Page 105 and 106: McCarthy discredited and a more rel
Page 107 and 108: dispute which once divided our nati
Page 109 and 110: pressure, continued to hold. The me
Page 111 and 112: discrimination, attempts at univers
Page 113 and 114: talks about Lincoln pleading that '
Page 115 and 116: creativity. The Confederates use a
Page 117 and 118: police in Birmingham and Kennedy's
Page 119 and 120: 1 Martin Luther King Jr.'s, speech,
Page 121 and 122: 44 Blight, Race and Reunion, 8-11,
Page 123 and 124: - self-belief, reasons for fighting
Page 125 and 126: Sexploitation - which reversed the
Page 127 and 128: would surely recognise the Mexicans
Page 129 and 130: There are similar examples in Major
Page 131 and 132: on working class whites nor receive
Page 133 and 134: The conflict between civil rights a
Page 135 and 136: e trusted from the wiles of the mis
Page 137 and 138: field-hands are too valuable an inv
Page 139: moving the civil rights agenda to a
Page 143 and 144: Most reviewers were sympathetic, se
Page 145 and 146: conservatism,' as a natural ally fo
Page 147 and 148: By the early 1970s, Hollywood's opt
Page 149 and 150: 20 Enoch, in Friendly Persuasion (1
Page 151 and 152: 62 Johnson called what happened the
Page 153 and 154: The world is white no longer; and i
Page 155 and 156: proceed with civil rights legislati
Page 157 and 158: would have been counter to the poli
Page 159 and 160: mid-1990s was rejected as the compa
Page 161 and 162: those historians who were contestin
Page 163 and 164: 1 James Baldwin, Stranger in the Vi
Page 165 and 166: 39 Robert Brent Toplin, Reel Histor
Page 167 and 168: 1210mmmto3sCT>The number of America
Page 169 and 170: There is a third problem - that of
Page 171 and 172: the Library of Congress and the Uni
Page 173 and 174: mainly contain copies of correspond
Page 175 and 176: killing. There were two other areas
Page 177 and 178: are 'no compensating moral values a
Page 179 and 180: epresented.' 32 However, this was t
Page 181 and 182: Reference has already been made to
Page 183 and 184: It is in the final period that anti
Page 185 and 186: 22 Letter from Shurlock to William
Page 187 and 188: Year Director Company190819091910Ba
Page 189 and 190: 191119121912Grant and LincolnHe Fou
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19131913Call to Arms, TheCarpenter,
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1915 Birth of a Nation, TheColonel
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19341935193619371938193919401941194
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Searchers, TheShowdown at AbileneTh
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Alien, Robert C., and Douglas Gomer
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Cassidy, John M., Civil War Cinema:
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Foner, Eric, Who Owns History, (New
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Landy, Marcia, (ed.), The Historica
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Prince, Stephen, A New Pot of Gold:
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Sternsher, Bernard, Consensus, Conf
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